The most inspirational music EVER is blasting in my hostel. It’s this kind of elevator music-esque repeat of the same note sequence with one of those beats you could probably find on an electric keyboard. The line for the two bathrooms (split between 18 million people who all want to shower at the same time) is endless, so I’m sitting in bed waiting.

Yesterday was eventful. Very Venetian. I didn’t bring my camera out because it was rainy and gross, but I do have photos from the first day on Flickr. In the evening Nick and I went on the pub crawl again. I felt like death, but I do not let death stop me from drinking. The crowd contained a lot of familiar people since they continue to be stranded here by the volcano in Iceland. It wasn’t as great as the night before because of the rain and because we were all exhausted from the night before, but it was still fun. We’re lucky that we’re trapped with a good group of really fun people at a hostel that actually attempts to create community. There are about three doppelgangers of people I know back home, including a Steph DeSimone doppelganger! Not nearly as good as original Steph, but still awesome. My favorites are hoping to be heading out on Wednesday, back to Dublin. I’m remaining somewhat hopeful that by Thursday flights will be starting to function. I’ll be really mega-pissed if my mom can’t come to London on Saturday. If I get stranded I can go to Rome and stay in Nick’s apartment, at least, and try to find a train to London from there at the worst.

We all scream “FUCK ICELAND!” in the streets a lot at night and we toast to the end of volcanoes. It is Iceland’s fault, after all. When I told the Texans that technically the volcano is better for the environment than the CO2 emissions from all the planes, they were not buying it. Haha. Being trapped in Venice…maybe not the worst thing. Nope. It’s a beautiful city, I’ve had good company, and it’s probably been my favorite stop so far. But getting back to London by airplane and not overpriced overnight crowded train would be nice. Just sayin’.

— Lauren